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whats the difference between routers and switches?
- Thread starter cajun47
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Carlosinfl
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To answer your question quickly - YES! You can only use a 10/100 or better switch to share your connection with 2 PC's and a XBOX. More than likely you have or had a router that was also a switch as well. Most home routers also act as a switch like D-Link / Netgear / Linksys-Cisco.
For more information - read below.
A router is a device that determines the proper path for data to travel between different networks.
Network switches are capable of inspecting data packets as they are received, determining the source and destination device of that packet, and forwarding it appropriately. By delivering each message only to the connected device it was intended for, a network switch conserves network bandwidth and offers generally better performance than a hub.
-- Wikipedia.
Basically - you use a Router to send and receive data from separate segregated networks or subnets on a LAN. A switch basically sends and receives data to machines on the same LAN and is not able to pass through different networks w/o a router because a switch has to verify the data and it's intended recipient.
For more you can read here...
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/homenetworkhardware/f/routervsswitch.htm
For more information - read below.
A router is a device that determines the proper path for data to travel between different networks.
Network switches are capable of inspecting data packets as they are received, determining the source and destination device of that packet, and forwarding it appropriately. By delivering each message only to the connected device it was intended for, a network switch conserves network bandwidth and offers generally better performance than a hub.
-- Wikipedia.
Basically - you use a Router to send and receive data from separate segregated networks or subnets on a LAN. A switch basically sends and receives data to machines on the same LAN and is not able to pass through different networks w/o a router because a switch has to verify the data and it's intended recipient.
For more you can read here...
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/homenetworkhardware/f/routervsswitch.htm
a home router usually has a dhcp server built in to assign internal IP addresses to all the computers and other devices on your network. thats why all your ip address are something like 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101 (could be a little different depending on brand of your router, but they will all be the same except for the last 3 digits.)
what are you trying to do? you could always just set your xbox as the dmz, then all traffic will be able to pass to and from it.
let us know what you are trying to do and we can help
but to answer your question, you will need a dhcp server of some sort to share you internet connnection with all the devices on your network.
what are you trying to do? you could always just set your xbox as the dmz, then all traffic will be able to pass to and from it.
let us know what you are trying to do and we can help
but to answer your question, you will need a dhcp server of some sort to share you internet connnection with all the devices on your network.
Carlosinfl
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Could he not set a static address to each client w/o a DHCP server? I have never tried to manage a home or work LAN w/o a DHCP server as most routers have them built in and right now my stand alone firewall machine (IPCop) also manages DNS and DHCP.
Not really true, some switches (not bare-bone switches I guess) do have NAT.
You just need something to act as a NAT device, though.
I would suggest just getting a Linksys WRT54G. Works pretty good right out of the box, although you may need to setup some port forwarding (and disable the wireless if you don't use it).
Carlosinfl
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I too love the WRT54G. If you could find an older version (good luck).
If a switch can do NAT it isn't going to be a consumer grade switch.
CaseyBlackburn
Gawd
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Your issue is probably just a portforwarding issue. You will need to setup portforwarding on your router for xbox live. If you are still having issues it might be because your modem also acts as a router, so you would have two NAT/Firewalls in the way, so look at your modem settings to see if there is a passthrough setting.
no.
Most consumer grade routers are basically a 2 port router with a (typically 4 port) switch on it, and as others have mentioned a DHCP server process (Gives out IP addresses automatically).
Switches work at Layer 2 (MAC address)
Routers work at Layer 3+ (IP address)
Yes there is the terminology of a layer 3 switch. Quite frankly it's a router. The wiki explains this rather well.
If you want to put more devices (pc's, xboxes, printers) than the number of IP addresses on a cable model, and want them to get to the Internet then you need a Router. Typically they do what's called Overload NAT, where you can have multiple Internal IP addresses use 1 for their gateway to get to the Internet, and they appear as one.
A few others have mentioned port forwarding. You may need to do this with specific games/applications, but MOST modern games/applications work without configuration and can deal with NAT. Basically when you go through a router doing NAT it changes your port numbers. You not only have an IP address you have a port number. (One of 65535). Some (very few) games/applications require a specific port to connect with. You would then use port forwarding within the router (most routers support this).
Switches work at Layer 2 (MAC address)
Routers work at Layer 3+ (IP address)
Yes there is the terminology of a layer 3 switch. Quite frankly it's a router. The wiki explains this rather well.
If you want to put more devices (pc's, xboxes, printers) than the number of IP addresses on a cable model, and want them to get to the Internet then you need a Router. Typically they do what's called Overload NAT, where you can have multiple Internal IP addresses use 1 for their gateway to get to the Internet, and they appear as one.
A few others have mentioned port forwarding. You may need to do this with specific games/applications, but MOST modern games/applications work without configuration and can deal with NAT. Basically when you go through a router doing NAT it changes your port numbers. You not only have an IP address you have a port number. (One of 65535). Some (very few) games/applications require a specific port to connect with. You would then use port forwarding within the router (most routers support this).
Just to add on here, because it hasn't been laid out clear -
If a switch does NAT, it's a layer three switch, which makes it technically a router.
Here's the rundown for the OP - I assume you're wanting to share internet between these three devices - like someone else mentioned, get in touch with your internet provider's tech support and ask them how many if you can get three DHCP addresses and if there's an extra cost associated with it. If there is a cost, and you'd rather not pay it, you'll need to get a router as the poster above me indicated. They really aren't that hard to set up.
If a switch does NAT, it's a layer three switch, which makes it technically a router.
Here's the rundown for the OP - I assume you're wanting to share internet between these three devices - like someone else mentioned, get in touch with your internet provider's tech support and ask them how many if you can get three DHCP addresses and if there's an extra cost associated with it. If there is a cost, and you'd rather not pay it, you'll need to get a router as the poster above me indicated. They really aren't that hard to set up.
It's just easyer to say if a switch does NAT it's a router, and whoever called it a switch is incorrect. Technicaly NAT is a layer 4 fuctionality.